Berlin director's trip from porn films to art
Interview with Chris Cummingham
I think the driving point is everybody watches porn but no one knows any one that has contact to the actual production of it. The question as to who is involved is easily answered, everybody. It's your neighbor, the girl working in the cell phone store, someone attending university, make up the list yourself. I met them. I had a brain surgeon working for me that was like an Abteilungsleiter (department head) at the Charite (one of Berlin and Germany's most famous hospitals). I find it interesting that he wore a mask while performing on the set, until the later films and then he didn't and these were dark stuff like simulated rapes.
I came over to Germany to work on a big feature film, the Mission Impossible franchise. I came on the 10th and the next day Sept. 11 happened so the production got cancelled. I came here for a legitimate reason, but I was almost happy that it disappeared so I could justify going back to the passion of online pornography. This gang bang was advertised in the legendary KitKat Club (former location) http://www.kitkatclub.de/ so I went there for research. While there, I asked the people if they wanted to be filmed. They said, yes, and my first production was born. The gangbang started in the Berlin underground, just for fun, and now has grown throughout Europe and become profitable. The internet allowed it to reach from Munich to Barcelona.
I've worked both mainstream and amatuer. A shoot can be in a taxi, a house, the back of the bar, anywhere that fits the story. There is never really any bad experiences, its more mundane on the set, boring sometimes, people are playing cards, telling bad jokes, friendly. Sometimes you're sitting there watching the clock, thinking Jesus am I cold. Sometimes I'm on the set watching these people thinking, my god, can they let themselves go. How stuck up am I?
I studied film at San Francisco's Academy of Arts and at UCLA. Coming from this background, the traditional approach was not interesting to me because it was very conform and had too many rules. I saw you could also produce porn where there is no rules, there is no coked-up advertising asshole telling you how to do it. I think this freedom is really a cool thing, maybe the only good thing about shooting porn is you don't have to answer to anyone.
Do one of these things and there are couples that want to do this, people that want to do that, but after a while I couldn't handle it anymore. It became overwhelming dealing with my own sexuality and working with sex at the same time. So I branched off and took the easy way out and produced really lame industrials.
I still drift in an out of the porn scene, both amateur and mainstream, but contrary to belief I didn't make any money at it. I forced myself to work more commercial projects outside of the adult industry, advertising, which I hate, and music videos, getting signed to RSA (Ridley Scott & Associates). I didn't make any money there either except I shot music videos for free and other people own vacation homes in St. Tropez.
I try to link art and pornography now. I want to see how far we've come, polish it, make it coffee-table book ready. In trying to marry the art and porn thing, greater directors than me, like some of the popular Danish directors, failed miserablly in merging the two. They tried to make porn films directed at women. But that was 10 years ago. Is there even a demand for aesthetic porn or do people just want the basics? (see http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/2Xp3XiyAJai54bmTm)
Porn was just not as bad as doing those other things, I thought doing advertising is worse. I wasn't sexually aroused. I thought of the lights, that we are doing an anal scene and we have to get the socks off the guy. I thought about the production, in that sense it is like advertising.
I have never taken part myself. I just like meeting the people and then I get to watch. My God, you meet this 24-year-old Medizin Studentin (medical student) that just happens to like being fucked by five guys. In two months she will be a doctor. I find it fascinating, with a high amount of respect for these people, maybe because I'm not able to do this. Its a form of freedom that allows you to appreciate the world around you, it shows that you don't have to be oppressed.
Berlin is a big clearing house, because it's so close to the east. It's easy to bring in talent from the East with German infrastructure. The girls love working here--its very professional. The girls get treated well, they get paid on time. Often for the girls, once you start you can't stop. I've seen a lot of girls like that. First they want to show their body, then they want to put it on video. It starts with a guy, then 20 guys isn't a problem, then girls.
Working in the Berlin scene, I saw things I didn't like, like forced prostition and the criminal side. But that was a long time ago, 10 years ago. I responded to this ad online at the time about a girl that wanted sex. When she showed up, she was with some strange guy. She only spoke Russian, so we had to get a translator to make sure it was legally okay. At the end, she acted like she didn't want to be there. The producer inside of me said OK everything is legal, lets get on with the production. Like I say, it was the only time I asked myself am I doing the right thing? After seeing that I was a little more careful about not involving myself in windy shit. My feeling is there are enough people who want to do this, there should be no reason to force anyone.
I'm more and more getting into the sector of copy left (public domain), I think the product should be for free. My new stars are girls that will work for free with the knowledge that the product will be free--free porn, as in free porn from the traditional moneymaking sense. My vision is to have a NGO (non-government organization). The pornography I do now is a vehicle to getting other things noticed, like fashion, music, food and fine arts.
Chris has worked as creative director on print and tv campaigns in the U.S. and Europe. As a creative consultant on films from Hollywood productions to art house films, and since 2000 he has produced and directed music videos and adult content, and what you have.
"It started with an addiction to internet porn, then I wanted to recreate it. Finding out people's sexual behavior online was easy, unlike a bar or other social situations. You may be married to someone 10 years and not find out what you can in five minutes online. Why, I don't know--maybe that is the question to be asked in this article. Why do people act unhibited in the virtual world?" --Chris.
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